it's 6pm in london. this is the world today with annita mcveigh president president trump's envoy steve witkoff witkoff meets vladimir putin in moscow moscow in the latest bid to end the the war in ukraine. volodymyr zelensky. zelensky. a standing ovation for for president zelensky from the irish irish parliament as he continues continues rallying support in europe. europe. a report into the hillsborough hillsborough disaster, in which 97 97 liverpool fans died, finds 12 12 police officers would have faced faced gross misconduct proceedings proceedings for failures. we've said said from the beginning what was was the truth and it's too late now now to do anything about it. the the white house defends defense secretary secretary pete hegseth amid accusations accusations he ordered us forces

forces to kill everyone on board board a suspected venezuelan drug drug smuggling vessel. and also coming coming up on the world today, age age uk warns that more than a million million older people are expected expected to eat christmas dinner dinner alone. welcome to the world today, an hour of international news from the the bbc. and we're beginning the the programme with the war in ukraine ukraine and the latest flurry of of diplomatic activity as the trump trump administration pushes to end end the four year conflict. we'll we'll have the latest on the discussions discussions happening today in just just a moment. but first to ukraine ukraine itself, as president zelensky zelensky says, territory remains remains the most difficult issue issue facing peace talks. ukraine ukraine has repeatedly rejected russian russian demands to give up the regions regions of luhansk and donetsk, known

known as the donbas. our defence defence correspondent jonathan beale, beale, who's in eastern ukraine, ukraine, has been gauging the reaction reaction of soldiers and civilians civilians there to the talks. we're we're heading east where russia's russia's still advancing. towards towards donetsk, the region which which may decide whether these us us led peace talks fail or succeed. succeed. the trains no longer run run there. as the fighting gets closer. closer. this is now the end of the the line. it's where they wait to to get their train out of danger. danger. for andre and polina. it's it's also the end of their own brief brief encounter. when will you see see each other again? when we don't don't know. you don't know? don't don't know. she's returning home

home to relative safety. andre is is going back to the front line. line. peace talks and. he doesn't doesn't see an end to the war in in sight. no. he describes the peace peace talks as chatter. just chatter. chatter. will it happen, he asks. asks. most likely not. president president putin still wants all of of the donbas. on their way out, out, some soldiers on leave will will have a brief respite from the the fighting. tired and exhausted. exhausted. but dennis says after after so much sacrifice, they're they're still not ready to give up. up. no one's giving it up. nobody nobody will give putin donbas. no no way. it's our land. but there's there's been a steady stream of desertions. desertions. sergey, not his real real name is now in hiding. he's

he's just one of hundreds of thousands thousands of cases reported for desertion. desertion. an american flag. one one of his few possessions. his frustrations frustrations are directed at his his own side, not the us. we had had no morale or fighting spirit. spirit. even if we had enough weapons, weapons, there weren't enough people people to operate them. there was was simply no one to fight. i joined joined to serve, not to run. so do do you think ukraine can win this this war? if you think logically, logically, no. a country of 140 million million against us with 32 million. million. it doesn't add up. civilians civilians are also leaving the east, east, their home in droves. at this this one reception centre, they're they're processing 200 people a day, day, giving them basic supplies and and money. they're escaping, intensifying intensifying russian attacks. so so he applied to. for vera. life

life had become unbearable. they they bombed almost every day. every every single day. civilian areas, areas, schools, houses were destroyed destroyed so badly that they can't can't be rebuilt. oleksandr says says it's too dangerous to stay. stay. he thinks it's time to make make a deal. with russia's. demands demands are unacceptable for us. us. but i don't know, maybe personally personally i would already agree agree to those terms. ina doesn't doesn't expect to return either. either. all she wants is peace. she she says she fled with her five children. children. they're already looking looking to rebuild their lives elsewhere. elsewhere. jonathan beale, bbc news news eastern ukraine. and a couple couple of hours ago, donald trump's trump's special envoy and mr trump's trump's son in law jared kushner kushner began their meeting with

with vladimir putin in moscow to to discuss the latest draft of the the us peace plan. ahead of the meeting. meeting. president putin said european european demands over negotiations negotiations to end the war in ukraine ukraine are unacceptable. we are are not planning to go to war with with europe. i have already said said that a hundred times, but if if europe all of a sudden wants to to fight against us and starts it, it, we are ready right now. ukraine ukraine isn't represented at those those talks in moscow. meanwhile, meanwhile, president zelensky is is in ireland. yesterday it was paris. paris. he spent the last two weeks, weeks, in fact, with other european european leaders trying to get changes changes to the original 28 point point peace plan that the us endorsed, endorsed, which was widely condemned condemned as a series of moscow demands. demands. president zelensky urged urged an end to the war, not just just a pause in the fighting. it's it's important that this should be

be all open and fair and just so so it would be no game behind ukraine's ukraine's back, nothing would be be decided without ukraine, about about ukraine, about our future. future. if we're talking about the the guarantees for security of ukraine, ukraine, which would that which the the right and there is a signal about about the frame document, then we we have to clearly understand what what is going to be like and how how is it going to work at least least basic things, because you see, see, it's not an experiment for us. us. we're talking about our people, people, our living people. the russians russians started the war and there there are no alternatives in this this formulation. they started the the war. the world is a witness to to it. they came with the aggression aggression to annihilate us. we stopped stopped them. europe helped us. america america helped us. russia has not not managed to occupy ukraine. president president zelensky speaking in dublin. dublin. well joining me now from

from dublin are ireland correspondent correspondent chris page, also from from washington, our north america america correspondent nomia iqbal. iqbal. but first with me here in in the studio, vitaly shevchenko, shevchenko, russia editor at bbc bbc monitoring. vitaly, i want to to get your analysis of what president president putin has been saying today. today. he's been saying that he's he's ready for a war with europe. europe. he doesn't want to fight, fight, but he's ready for a war. war. and as we heard, you know, he he finds european demands about ending ending the war unacceptable. he is is as uncompromising as ever. and and at the same time he signalled signalled us acceptance or friendliness friendliness towards donald trump trump and his peace plan. he said said that it was europe that keeps keeps getting in the way of donald donald trump's peace initiatives. initiatives. so it's europe that that is to blame and to give you you an idea of what sort of speech speech he made before meeting the the us envoys, he said that what what the russian army was doing in in ukraine isn't really a war. russia

russia was acting surgically precise. precise. so that is, of course, demonstrably demonstrably untrue. but what he he said meant to demonstrate russia's russia's hard line stance and also also confidence in what it is doing doing in ukraine. ok, we'll come come back to that plan in a moment, moment, vitaly. but let me bring bring in chris page in dublin now now and chris, president zelensky's zelensky's visit to ireland as it it has been with other european capitals capitals that he's visited in recent recent days, underlining solidarity solidarity with ukraine. and this this visit today coming at a very very significant moment. yes, that's that's right. president zelensky zelensky is the first leader of a a country at war ever to visit ireland. ireland. and certainly the strong strong themes of this visit from from the irish government's point point of view were support and solidarity. solidarity. micheal martin, the irish irish prime minister, has been making

making the point that ireland is is trying to maximise its influence, influence, as it were, as a small small country. but there's certainly certainly a sense that this visit visit came at a big moment in these these efforts to end the war. in in the leader's news conference after after they held talks. well, president president zelensky spoke of his optimism, optimism, but also that this was was a moment of great challenge. challenge. he said he didn't want want to go into the details of what what was in that peace plan, but but he spoke of two difficulties difficulties as he saw it first, first, around the issue of territory territory and secondly around freezing freezing russian assets. and micheal micheal martin, the irish prime minister, minister, really backed up president president zelensky strongly on that that point about money, saying that that frozen russian assets should should be used to rebuild ukraine. ukraine. he said that european taxpayers taxpayers shouldn't solely foot the the bill, as it were, for that enormous enormous job, and also that freezing freezing russian assets should be be used as an important deterrent. deterrent. the last public remarks remarks which president zelensky zelensky made before that meeting meeting in moscow got under way came

came in the in his address to the the irish houses of parliament, where where he got a standing ovation again again there he said there was a real real chance for peace. but throughout throughout today he has been saying saying a lot depends on those talks talks in moscow that that will determine determine as far as he's concerned, concerned, the way forward, whether whether he then moves to meet president president trump, he says he is prepared prepared to do if what is outlined, outlined, what comes out of those those talks is fair and perceived perceived as fair by ukraine's allies allies to. ok, chris, thank you very very much. let's head to washington washington and to nomia iqbal and and nomia. the trump administration administration has been talking about about optimism around this latest latest round of the peace talks. talks. but if we look at the time time since president trump returned returned to the white house, he seems seems to have swung between optimism optimism and frustration. sometimes sometimes that frustration directed directed at ukraine, sometimes directed directed at russia. so where is his his thinking right now as far as as you can determine in terms of

of his patience with this process? process? because that might dictate dictate to a large extent what happens. happens. president trump just wants wants a peace deal. he wants that that to be achieved. and i think think for many lawmakers, including including republicans who are critical critical of him, they're worried worried about at what cost. yes. yes. president trump said that he he would stop the war on day one one of getting into office. that's that's not happened. he we had that that big summit in alaska with president president putin. nothing came of of that. and i think there's a lot lot of concern around steve witkoff, witkoff, the man who he is sent to to try and bring in that peace deal. deal. steve witkoff does not have have diplomacy experience. he's an an estate real estate guy. he's donald donald trump's golf buddy. also, also, he has been at the centre of of a few controversial things. so so there was this leaked transcript transcript which appeared to show show him advising a russian official official how to curry favour with with president trump. and he has has been accused again. it's not not just, you know, the lawmakers lawmakers are also on republican republican side by essentially being

being an agent of russia, that he he is way more favourable towards towards russia than he is towards towards ukraine. bear in mind he's he's never gone to ukraine. this this is his sixth visit to moscow. moscow. and just even before the the meeting began. i mean, it's all all closed at the at the moment just just looking at, you know, some of of the translation this was through through an interpreter. witkoff said said when he was asked about this this walk that he took through moscow moscow by vladimir putin, he said said it was a beautiful walk, a magnificent magnificent city. and i think that that underlines just, you know, for for many they would say that is how how close steve witkoff is to russia. russia. and so, you know, exactly exactly what will this peace deal deal look like? what will the revised revised peace deal look like? will will it be more favourable to russia russia than it will be to ukraine? ukraine? i think the concern by those those who want who are supportive supportive of ukraine is that ukraine ukraine may suffer in the long run, run, that in the end there will be be more of a capitulation to russia. russia. ok. thank you. well, let's let's return now to vitaly here with

with me in the studio. russia, editor editor of bbc monitoring. and on on that peace plan then we don't don't know what russia is going to to make of or how it's going to react react to that revised. what was 28 28 point peace plan and depending depending on their reaction and to to that point i was discussing with with nomia, you know, president trump's trump's frustration at times with with ukraine, at times with russia, russia, you know, that that is going going to have an influence. but what what influence? we don't know on on president trump's thinking. you're you're absolutely right. we have have no idea what president putin putin is discussing right now as as we speak in the kremlin with steve steve witkoff and donald trump's trump's son in law, jared kushner, kushner, who is also there. the positive positive sounds that we've heard heard from both putin and his spokesman, spokesman, dmitry peskov, about donald donald trump's plan, whatever it it is, suggests that it's possibly

possibly predominantly favourable favourable towards russia. for example, example, dmitry peskov, the presidential presidential spokesman, he said this this morning that he was hoping that that donald trump's proposal proposals proposals would form the basis of of settlement in ukraine. at the the same time, he said that while while russia was open to the idea idea of peace talks, it saw peace peace talks as a way of achieving achieving military means in ukraine, ukraine, which again suggests that that russia is absolutely unrelenting unrelenting in its objectives and and is determined to crush ukraine. ukraine. now, with america's support. support. vitali, thank you very much. much. vitaly shevchenko and that that meeting in moscow between president president putin, steve witkoff and and jared kushner still continuing. continuing. well, let's speak now now to former adviser to the ukrainian

ukrainian government, oleksandr danylyuk. danylyuk. thank you very much for for joining us today here on the the world today on bbc news. given given as we heard recently, that that leak of or saw recently that that leak of transcripts of steve steve witkoff advising a russian russian official on how best to, to, you know, get president trump's trump's favour. how concerned are are you at this precise moment that that steve witkoff is in the room room with president putin? it's not not the first time, of course, without without ukraine being represented. represented. well, as you said, it's it's not the first time. so kind kind of getting getting used to it. it. just look at the look at the the picture. right. he's sitting sitting there with jared kushner kushner and there's putin in front front and there is a statue of tzar tzar russian symbolic russian flag, flag, a wonderful photo. i don't don't think any us official would would actually be comfortable and and be allowing to be photographed

photographed like this. so clearly clearly this is that sends a very, very, you know, clear message that, that, you know, russia is strong. strong. i think for putin, the whole whole fact that us is negotiating negotiating with him is is basically basically give them the signal that, that, you know, he's strong and us us us is is weak. so i think we can't can't change it as it is. right. right. we're just waiting for what what the result of this discussion. discussion. and we will have to basically basically take them into consideration. consideration. but i think, you know, know, all parties now are rushing rushing to say that we are so close close to the peace. well, reality reality it's not true, right? it's it's just it's almost like the peace peace is the word of the day. it's it's just not not to use peace. the the word peace but reality. we are are very, very far from the peace

peace because russia, russia, appetites appetites didn't change. yes. peskov peskov peskov said today that they they look at the negotiations and and the means to get something which which they for which they actually actually started the war actually actually can even tell differently. differently. i would even feel differently. differently. i think the only reason reason russia is interested in negotiations negotiations is because giving the the some potential, you know, russian russian us side to make a deal. they they can they aim to get from this this negotiation more than they otherwise otherwise would get through the military military means only. yeah. and it's it's very clear from president zelensky zelensky some of what he's been saying saying today that he is, you know, know, being very diplomatic in choosing choosing his words carefully, for for example, he said, i can see some some optimism in the speed of the the process and us interest in the the talks. so that's saying something something in an optimistic way without without saying very much. i think, think, you know, there's been a lot

lot of focus, hasn't there, on pokrovsk pokrovsk in the last few days. and, and, you know, russia saying that that it has captured the area, ukraine ukraine saying that russian flag flag bearers have been driven back back from the area, you know, is is this all about at this precise precise moment while these talks talks are taking place, trying to to demonstrate strength to president president trump because both parties, parties, russia and ukraine believe believe that is one of the things things that he is most interested interested in, not how this started started and who started it, but who who is strongest. yes, that's clearly clearly the goal for this, right? right? that's clearly the goal during during the negotiations it's important. important. what is the background background of i cannot say the noise, noise, but you know the background background like a photo. right. and and you know russia is clearly wants wants to portray that they are progressing progressing and it's you know this this is partially true in this they're they're putting so much resources resources they don't value the people's people's life. you know, the lives

lives of russians or north koreans koreans or whoever they hired to to fight and to kill ukrainians. ukrainians. they don't value this this life. so they now like doubling doubling their efforts to basically basically to progress ukrainian. ukrainian. it's a difficult time time for us now. right? i've been been in the national security chief chief of ukraine in 2018. i thought thought at that time it was difficult. difficult. you know, it's getting getting more and more difficult. difficult. but you know ukraine is is strong, ukraine is strong and and that's why, you know, at the the end of the day it will be up up to us what we accept or don't don't accept, what is imposed on on us. ok. oleksandr danyliuk, thank thank you very much for joining us us today. and those talks in moscow, moscow, as i was mentioning, still still continuing, we are expecting expecting to hear from president president trump again within the the next couple of hours. so we'll we'll keep a watch on all of those those meetings, those comments and and bring you the latest right now, now, a short

more, join us here on bbc news. let's let's turn now to the us and venezuela venezuela because the white house house has defended us secretary of of defence pete hegseth against allegations allegations that he instructed the the us military to kill everyone everyone on board a venezuelan vessel vessel suspected of smuggling drugs. drugs. the white house said instead, instead, it was a top us navy admiral admiral who ordered a second strike strike on the boat, which killed killed survivors of the first hit. hit. the washington post recently recently reported that two people people survived the first blast and and were still clinging to the vessel vessel when they were killed, raising raising fresh legality questions. questions. let's speak now to senior senior adviser at the international international crisis group's us programme. programme. brian finucane. prior prior to that, brian worked in the the us state department, where he he advised the government on legal legal and policy issues relating relating to counterterrorism and and the use of military force. brian, brian, thank you very much for joining joining us. how would you begin to

to interpret weather strikes such such as these are legal or not? well, well, the background presumption presumption is that outside of armed armed conflict, premeditated killing killing constitutes murder. and so so the question is is there an armed armed conflict? the administration administration says that there is, is, but there doesn't seem to be be factual support for that theory. theory. the various gangs, narcotics narcotics trafficking entities that that the us claims to be in armed armed conflict with, many of them them do not even have the requisite requisite organisation, military military type, hierarchy, command command and control and ability to to conduct combat operations. so so that could even be in armed conflict conflict with the united states. states. and so that calls into question question all of these strikes, all all of these killings, not just the the incident that occurred on the the 2nd of september. yeah. and is is that the case? even if the trump trump administration has designated designated a number of these drug drug smuggling groups as terrorists.

terrorists. so it's citing counterterrorism counterterrorism as a justification, justification, i suppose, for these these strikes. yeah. applying the the label terrorist does not automatically automatically transform one of these these groups into an organised armed armed group for the purposes of international international law doesn't automatically automatically transform an individual individual into a lawful target. target. this is playing games with with words, but there's no legal legal substance behind it. as best best we can tell. and what do you you make, then of the reports of of the call that we've had from president president trump to nicolas maduro maduro saying that he has until friday friday to leave venezuela with his his family, even pope leo has been been talking about this, hasn't he? he? and encouraging the trump administration administration to find a way of dealing dealing with this without the use use of military force? well, it's it's difficult to make a sense of of any particular detail that may may come out, but i think the overall overall picture is that the administration administration may be looking for

for off ramps here. the secretary secretary of state, marco rubio, rubio, has been pushing us venezuela venezuela policy and has not been been shy about seeking regime change change in caracas. but the us president president may not be fully on board board with that, particularly if if any such regime change would entail entail a us military intervention. intervention. and so it is good news news if the us president is engaged engaged in diplomatic outreach, considering considering talks and alternatives alternatives to what would likely likely be a disastrous military intervention intervention in venezuela. ok, brian, brian, thank you very much for your your thoughts on that story. and and in fact, we have just seen that that text says the us has only just just begun striking alleged drug drug boats will bring you more on on any developments there here in in the uk andrew mountbatten-windsor, mountbatten-windsor, formerly known known as prince andrew, is unlikely unlikely to get any compensation compensation for giving up his royal royal home after being stripped of of his titles. mps on the public public accounts committee are to to hold an inquiry into the crown crown estate about its lease of royal royal lodge to mr mountbatten-windsor,

mountbatten-windsor, the committee committee said the investigation investigation formed part of its its overall mission to secure value value for money for the taxpayer. taxpayer. let's speak to our culture culture correspondent, noor nanji. nanji. so noah, we're talking here here about the crown estate. explain explain for our audience what exactly exactly the crown estate is and why why mps are looking into this. well, well, for years andrew mountbatten mountbatten windsor's finances have have been under scrutiny. but tonight tonight that was widened to the royal royal family more broadly and some some of the properties where some some of them live. now to be clear, clear, that doesn't include properties properties like buckingham palace. palace. that is not the crown estate. estate. however, this inquiry that that you mentioned there, it will will be looking at the crown estate estate specifically and its royal royal leases. now tonight buckingham buckingham palace is saying that that this is a matter for the crown crown estate, the crown estate, for for its part, says that it looks looks forward to supporting the process. process. but i think there can be

be no doubt that this will be uncomfortable uncomfortable for the royal family family coming at a time when clearly clearly they will have been hoping hoping to draw a line under all of of this now, separately tonight. tonight. today it emerged that andrew andrew mountbatten windsor he will will unlikely be receiving any compensation compensation when he does move out out of his windsor lodge royal lodge. lodge. now, in theory, he could have have been entitled to as much as as £488,000. that's because he paid paid large sums up front on things things like rent and renovations. renovations. however, in this report report today by this response from from the crown estate, they made made it clear that he is unlikely unlikely to get that because of the the repairs required on the property. property. ok, noah, thank you very very much. noor nanji outside buckingham buckingham palace. much more coming coming up on the programme. i'll i'll be talking to a survivor of of the hillsborough disaster about about the latest developments in in that story today. in the next next few minutes. so do stay with with us here on bbc news.